As many folks know, console games require a long lead team because they have to go through certification after the team finishes the game. IGN: How long has this downloadable content (DLC) been in the works? How do you decide which bits of content should fit into a DLC release? Dave Pottinger: It's been in development for a while. Changing the goal to keeping the unit alive added that element of strategy and unpredictability that strategy games require. It wasn't working in a strategy game very well. Bringing the Sentinel back to your base was alternately trivial and impossible. The big "Aha! This is going to work!" moment came when we figured out that we needed to change the standard Capture the Flag mechanic. Once claimed, you need to keep the Sentinel alive for a couple of minutes.
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The first unit to get to the Sentinel claims it. Every so often, a cute little Forerunner Sentinel pops out on the map in various locations. Keep Away is Capture the Flag for a strategy game. Keep Away: If you've played a game of Capture the Flag, you've got a decent idea how this works. Retreating and focused raids are much more common in this mode. You need to do that while saving your own troops as much as possible. Doing the most damage to your enemy is no longer the goal. This mechanic creates a neat dynamic where the tactical choices in battles are very different. Your task? Simple, get the bar all the way to your side. If your strength goes up, the bar moves a little bit closer to your side. The "Tug of War Bar" at the top of the screen shows the difference between your strength and the other team's strength. Every unit and resource you have contributes to your strength. Tug of War: Tug of War is based around the idea of bringing a fighting-game mechanic into a strategy game. It obviously forces you to rethink everything, but it also really rewards and showcases the players who understand how the game works. The reinforcement waves come fast and furious every minute or two. If you just got a raft of Warthogs, you should probably go buy a Warthog upgrade. Your success depends on how well you can use those units and how much you've upgraded those units. That selection is gated by your tech level, etc. When that pops, we take all your supplies and give you a selection of units to play with based on how many supplies you had. When the game starts, you instantly see the "Wave Timer". Okay, let's take away that first part! You can't build any units in Reinforcement mode. Reinforcement: What's the core of any strategy game? Building your army and then crushing your enemies with it. 1 wanted to be a little higher level, a little more epic if you will. We didn't want to add 1,000 tweaky rule changes that broke your understanding of the basic gameplay or unit relationships. The goal with each of the modes was to change "one thing" and have that cause you to rethink your entire strategy.
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IGN: We saw a little bit of the detail on how these modes will work in the initial press release, but can you explain it again with a bit more detail? What sorts of styles of gameplay do you feel these afford players compared to what's currently available? Dave Pottinger: Sure. Robot Entertainment's Dave Pottinger, a producer on Halo Wars, recently opened up to IGN with details on that add-on, possible upcoming expansions, and the future of Robot. The first, titled Strategic Options, will add several new multiplayer modes and will release on Xbox Live soon.
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This new studio will support Halo Wars with balancing patches and game add-ons. Though the group that made Halo Wars, Ensemble Studios, was shut down by Microsoft, members of that team have since formed Robot Entertainment. Since its launch, Halo Wars has garnered a stable and sizable online community that meets up on Xbox Live daily to test the latest tactics on this real-time strategy game. Halo Wars surprised a lot of skeptics when it was met with generally positive reviews and then flew off of store shelves en route to selling over 1 million copies.